When Pepe was a young boy, his uncle Jose Alberto told him about a remarkable book entitled Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in the Philippine Islands) which could be found in the British Museum in London.
The young Pepe never forgot. Now a young man of 27 residing in Europe, he took a scholar’s odyssey to London to find it.
His quest was not in vain!
Here was a book every Filipino should read. Now he understood his people even better. his was the piece in the puzzle of Identity that had been missing in the story of his beloved country.
Referring to the book, Rizal wrote: Like almost all of you, I was born and brought up in ignorance of our country’s past and so, without knowledge or authority to speak of what I neither saw nor studied, I deem it necessary to quote the testimony of an illustrious Spaniard who in the beginning of the new era controlled the destinies of the Philippines and had personal knowledge of our ancient nationality in its last days.
One phrase stood out… like almost all of you, I was born and brought up in ignorance of our country’s past…
There are many things we do not know about ourselves. We have taken what the imperialists have said about us as truth — that we are a people without ancient roots, unlike the Chinese or the Japanese; that we were savages, uncivilized with no letters; that we did not have skill nor craft and were lazy.
If there was a chance to read a book that proves that all these were untrue, wouldn’t you want to read it?
But alas! We appear to have a motto — “past is past” —the motto of a people who have mastered the art of forgetting. We seem to have forgotten the centuries of suffering and survival against oppression, and the unbalancing of cards by the arrival of a power who brought war into the gates of our islands.
And that is precisely the reason for studying Rizal.
It is not just about Rizal. It is about every man, woman and youth who decides that he doesn’t want to forget anymore.
It is time to rediscover our real story… and to write a new one.
After Rizal read that book in London, he decided to publish a new edition, with his own annotations to highlight certain points which lay in the shadows between the lines but needed to be brought to the light.
About the new edition, Rizal said If the book succeeds in awakening your consciousness of our past, already effaced from your memory, and to rectify what has been falsified and slandered, then I have not worked in vain and … we shall then be able to study the future.
It is impossible to plan the future without studying the past.
In June of last year, Indonesia experienced a spate of forest fires. Forest fires turn trees and bushes to ash. But fires cannot kill the forest. After a week, little green shoots begin to spring up and the next generation of undergrowth is on its way to becoming the mighty trees of the future. The ancient trees heal, leaving within their rings a history of what transpired for the future generations to read.
On Oct. 24-25, a production entitled Rizal ATBP will come to Dumaguete. It will make every Filipino ask and answer the question Who Am I? What am I here for?
The musical play highlights the story of a student named Joey, confused about what he as a Filipino can be proud of, until a series of confronttions changes his life.
Rizal ATBP is not just about Rizal.
Rizal ATBP is about the power of roots. (Charity Oh)
